The BSR excavation of 2016 of the area immediately to the north and west of the tomb of Marcus Obellius Firmus aimed to understand the role of a tufa wall built 5 m to the north of the tomb.

The wall was initially exposed by the excavations of 1908 and was interpreted as demarcating the pomerium of the city.

This hypothesis was later challenged following the discovery of a gateway in the wall and a beaten-earth road leading from the basalt road that runs around the city.

The structures were interpreted as possibly forming part of the pagus set aside for the tomb of Obellius Firmus, one of the most powerful families in Pompeii at the time of the AD 79 eruption.

Following the clearance of a shallow level of topsoil and some lapilli, a series of deposits were recorded which contained the clearance of material from inside an ustrinum, including fragments of a funerary bed, ash and charcoal. Furthermore, immediately to the north of the tomb of Obellius Firmus, at a depth of 0.77m, an ustrinum cut into the ground was discovered.

To the west of the tomb a further stretch of a beaten-earth road was exposed which led from the basalt road through the small gateway.

The initial study of the stratigraphy of the area appears to indicate that the area underwent a substantial reorganisation after AD 62.